Aftermath for the Other Half
by NerdofSpades
Summary: A lot of newly dead so suddenly raises some questions. But mostly it's just problematic and a logistical hell for the gods of death and afterlife.


**This fic is mostly a little stand alone because thinking about logistics is... something I do from time to time and I know for a fact that Hades would want Thanos's head on a platter. Overall... Infinity Wars has problems, but I am not addressing them here. Also, spoilers for who dies and where for Infinity Wars, not that it matters considering Marvel doesn't understand that for the rest of the world, death is supposed to be permanent.**

 **Anyway. Enjoy, and feel free to let me know what you think!**

 **NoS**

* * *

Hades honestly didn't know what to do right now. Charon was waiting on the other end of the Iris Message for an answer while Thanatos rushed around somewhere trying to round up all the souls on his list.

"For now, fast track the demigod heroes you recognize," Hades finally answered. "Ignore everyone else until we can sort this out."

"But my lobby is overflowing!" Charon cried out. "There'll be spirits in the street soon-"

"There are already spirits in the street," Hades snapped back. "We're still trying to collect everyone and make sure they actually get sent to the proper afterlife. We don't want random heroes to other pantheons getting tried and sorted here, their parents or patrons would throw a fit. Only let through the people we know are ours beyond a shadow of a doubt. We'll tally the dead and the names we have recorded and try and sort things out once this has calmed down." He swiped his hand through the rainbow, cutting the connection.

Hades sighed, rubbing a hand against his face. Too much was happening too fast. Sure, there had been a bit of an uptick over the last few days, hours even, with all the Wakandans he'd already had to redirect, but that did nothing to explain why half the population had suddenly just died. Even the demigods coming in were confused and had no fare for passage, but he couldn't leave them with Charon, sooner or later, someone like Jackson or Grace or Valdez or Chase or any of the other powerful heroes with powerful parents would show up and if he didn't let them through he would have problems. Better to just tell Charon to let through all the Greek kids he recognized.

Taking another breath, Hades pulled up a connection to Thanatos. "What's going on up there?"

"I still don't know," came the response. "None of the souls I'm collecting know anything about it. Phil Coulson showed up again."

Hades bit back another groan. Phil Coulson was not a name he wanted to see after the mess from last time when his soul was yanked back into his body, startling and upsetting the rest of the spirits in the waiting room. He didn't need a repeat of that now of all times. "Leave him. We'll deal with it later. Anything else?"

Thanatos hummed. "Fury is on the list, too. I don't seem to see any escapees, though, so, we've got that going for us…" Hades was nodding in agreement when Thanatos fell silent.

"What is it?" he asked.

"I'm getting names from off world."

"So some mortal astronauts are on the list, we've dealt with that-"

"Not from the space station. They're on Titan."

"... I didn't know the mortals had made it out that far. Who is it?"

"Peter Parker, Peter Quill, Doctor Stephen Strange-"

"He doesn't belong to us anyway, strike him from your list."

"- Mantis, and Drax. I believe those last two aren't human, based on my readings, so I'll ignore them as well."

"That leaves two. We'll have to go get them eventually, but let's focus on things closer to home for now. Keep working, collect as many as you can and send them our way." Hades dismissed the connection again and thought. Even with holding off on the newcomers, there was going to be an influx larger than the current infrastructure could handle. He would have to expand… everything. Fields of Punishment, Asphodel, and Elysium. He'd need to open more courts and find more judges to be available to get through everyone. He'd need to open more gates at the entrance and hire more guards to man them and watch the path for stragglers and potential escapees. He'd probably have to get Charon a faster boat, and there was no way he could afford to ignore Charon's demands for a raise now. Or maybe he couldn't get the fool a better boat but hire some more help and buy more boats. Either way-

Thanatos was calling back. "What is it?"

"The mortals figured out how to put a soul in a machine." Hades stopped for a moment. He didn't even understand how Hephaestus managed to do that, and now mortals were? "More than that, it seems they actually kind of… made this one on their own."

"That's not possible." It really wasn't. The fates made and controlled souls and the way they wove together in life and reality.

"It seems it is when one of _those_ stones gets involved. It was the one the mortals called 'Vision.' Even stranger, records show he died, was brought back, then died again."

Hades growled. "And you say the mortals made him with one of the stones?"

"Yes."

"Just do your job." Hades dismissed the call again, grumbling under his breath.

If the stones were involved, and half the population was dead… then… but that shouldn't be possible. That man didn't love anything but his foolish, temporary, so-called "solution." The Soul Stone should be very permanently out of his reach. He would have to-

Nope. No, he was not dealing with that. He had enough problems trying to handle the aftermath in his own realm. Someone else could handle whatever had gone wrong on their own time if they even noticed. And anyway, considering how many of the mortal "Avengers" had died in Thanos's foolish gamble, it was a matter of time before the remaining members did something and inevitably _broke_ something so badly that he would have a whole new kind of mess to deal with.

No, he was going to stay here in the underworld and handle his own problems and hopefully prepare himself well enough for whatever was going to come next wouldn't rattle anything to badly.

Who was he kidding. There is no preparing for what those (very effective) mortal nutjobs would do. No, he would just have to clean this up on his end. Everything else was not his problem.

He sat up straighter and pulled his face into a more regal expression to hide for much this worried him and called for his advisors and "city" planners. It was time to get to work.


End file.
